J.P. Morgan's Multi-Asset Team Gets Tops Honors with Morningstar's Fund Manager of the Year Award

--Portfolio Manager Anne Lester and team receive coveted annual award--

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Jan 21, 2015, 01:19 ET

NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- J.P. Morgan Asset Management today announced that it has received the 2014 Morningstar U.S. Fund Manager of the Year Award in the Allocation category, recognizing Portfolio Manager Anne Lester and the team on the JPMorgan SmartRetirement suite of target date funds, including: Chief Investment Officer Jeffrey Geller and Portfolio Managers Michael Schoenhaut, Daniel Oldroyd and Eric Bernbaum.

"We are incredibly excited that our team and our asset allocation capabilities have been recognized by Morningstar with this award," said Anne Lester, Portfolio Manager and Head of Global Retirement Solutions for J.P. Morgan Asset Management. "We have an exceptionally skilled portfolio management team that capitalizes on J.P. Morgan's depth of investment talent across asset classes, geographies and investment styles, and we are so proud of what we have been able to achieve for our clients. One of the most important things we do every day with our work is help Americans with one of their most important goals – achieving retirement security."

The JPMorgan SmartRetirement suite has $58.9 billion in assets under management, and uses a team-based approach with over 100 investment professionals contributing to its success through research, design, portfolio management and delivery. This experienced multi-asset team has a 30-year history of managing institutional multi-asset class portfolios, and $141 billion in multi-asset class mandates.

According to Morningstar's nomination:

The series benefited from management stability, with Lester at the helm since its 2006 inception. The series' funds, on average, ranked in the best decile of their respective peer groups in 2014. The team fired on all cylinders, with strategic asset allocation, tactical positioning, and selection of underlying managers all contributing to outperformance. A highly diversified approach paid dividends, as a dedicated allocation to REITs and a modest bias toward emerging-markets stocks in the international sleeve contributed to results. A tactical overweighting to U.S. large caps and an underweighting to core bonds boosted performance. Strong showings from most of the underlying domestic-equity managers also propelled the series ahead of the competition.

The SmartRetirement funds' long-term absolute and risk-adjusted returns land among the target-date universe's best, largely due to additive tactical decisions and solid manager selection. The series fared exceptionally well in both 2008's downturn and during 2009's rally, a testament to the resiliency of the glide path and the group's tactical aptitude.

JPMorgan SmartRetirement Funds offer individual investors institutional-caliber diversification thanks to the firm's world-class global investment talent and expertise in alternative investing. With access to more than 220 sophisticated J.P. Morgan strategies, the portfolio management team has the unique ability to choose from a deep and broad set of investment capabilities as it makes allocation decisions.

Applying its allocation experience to the retirement space, the glide path for SmartRetirement has been developed by carefully analyzing how asset class diversification, portfolio efficiency and risk exposure may affect participants' retirement income security. Key to the funds' success is the team's ability to make tactical allocation adjustments based on short- to intermediate-term market conditions, without significantly changing long-term strategic allocations. This has allowed SmartRetirement fund investors to side-step market setbacks and enjoy consistently strong risk-adjusted returns in a variety of market conditions.

Because life doesn't always go as planned, J.P. Morgan's fiduciary-focused philosophy ensures that the strategies are developed to weather realistic participant behavior and a wide range of market scenarios, ultimately resulting in better outcomes.

The J.P. Morgan's SmartRetirement series recognized with this award includes (JSIIX, JSFIX, JTTIX, JNSIX, JSMIX, SRJIX, SMTIX, JSAIX, JTSIX, and JFFIX) :

About J.P. Morgan Asset Management

J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with assets under management of $1.7 trillion (as of Dec 31, 2014), is a global leader in investment management. J.P. Morgan Asset Management's clients include institutions, retail investors and high net worth individuals in every major market throughout the world. J.P. Morgan Asset Management offers global investment management in equities, fixed income, real estate, hedge funds, private equity and liquidity. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), the parent company of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, is a leading global asset management firm with assets of approximately $2.6 (as of Dec 31, 2014) trillion and operations in more than 60 countries. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com

SOURCE J.P. Morgan Asset Management